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TORONTO – Mike Babbad insists he has not established combinations of lines that include Auston Matthews in his training. He even participated in a Tuesday training that did not involve any line racing, although it was probably the last try before Matthews returned from his left shoulder injury.
"When he's available, I'm sure we'll find him teammates," said Babbad, with a nod to the fact that number 34 had not been officially approved by medical staff.
Matthews has said he is ready to return to San Jose on Wednesday – a game that would be the first for the first Toronto Maple Leafs since Winnipeg's free-wheeling victory over Jacob Trouba on Oct. 27. .
"I got bored of death this month," said Matthews. "I think I'm just going to be excited to come back with the team and obviously get a game tomorrow. Do what we always do, just play hockey. I am really excited. "
The Leafs have taken a pretty exciting start even with him and the un-signed William Nylander on the sidelines – their 17 wins in 25 games are the second record in the franchise's history, one behind the other. 1934-1935 team – but we will not have a true idea of their talent until the whole group is together.
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Whether Matthews returns Wednesday or not, the work of Peter DeBoer, San Jose coach, will certainly be more difficult than the one he faced when he met the Shark Tank Leafs on November 15th. His team will be playing not only the second half in a row, but he will not have the last change by facing a Toronto team with difference makers in the top three lines.
In the Leafs' 5-3 defeat earlier this month, DeBoer equaled Logan Couture's trio with John Tavares, Melker Karlsson with Nazem Kadri and Joe Thornton with Par Lindholm. The Sharks had an imbalance in the minutes against the Lindholm line, but it will be pushed back to 4C when Matthews returns.
(At least San Jose will be able to deploy high-level defensemen to each pair with Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Erik Karlsson and Brent Burns playing separately – not a luxury that many Leafs opponents will have at hand.)
The most important point here is how much the Leafs will be better with Matthews driving a line while Tavares continues to do his thing with Mitch Marner and Zach Hyman. Tavares scored 15 goals in 25 games, Connor McDavid tied for third in the NHL with 33 points starting Tuesday, and Matthews scored 10 goals in 10 and a half games before being injured.
History even tells us that it is not unreasonable to expect that it will come back to a higher gear. Last season, he had scored in his first game every third time he had returned from injury, especially after an absence of a month for a right shoulder injury in March.
"He worked hard and had the opportunity to work hard this time, which I think is really beneficial to him," Babbad said. "There is always this initial energy and then starts the battle, but it's a very good player and he can help us."
Matthews approached this recovery in a different way from the one that preceded it by traveling with the team over the past two weeks. This allowed him to do all sorts of extra work after morning workouts and skates.
Seeing it collapse, out of breath, is common in empty buildings around the league these days, the result of dreadful drills by Matthews' badistant coaches and the team's health.
"You only do all the work you can do when you're injured to stay in shape," Matthews said. "I'm waiting at [conditioning] it should be fine, I skated a lot during the last two weeks. It will be nice to throw the trolley out the door and start playing hockey and that kind of fun again. "
One good thing was to see the team play well in his absence. Toronto was 9-5-0 without Matthews – he also returned to win the Oct. 27 game against the Jets after starting in the second period – and seems to be competing for the Atlantic Division title, if not the Presidents Trophy.
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Assuming that Matthews is reunited with Patrick Marleau and Kasperi Kapanen, at least until Nylander returns, the third row would probably see Kadri between Andreas Johnsson and Connor Brown. That leaves Lindholm, Tyler Ennis and Josh Leivo in the fourth row.
It's a list with pointing options everywhere.
"Obviously, we have good players and there is never a question of a player," said Babbad. "It's about the team and how we do our business."
That's pretty decent, but adding Matthews, it's like dropping a cinder block on one side of a weighted scale. That tipped the balance in favor of Toronto. Since entering the NHL, he has led the league by 60 goals and averaged 0.54 goals per game in the regular season with the Leafs.
He also does not seem to be reluctant to return to the fire. The 21-year-old initially struggled to regain the power of his most dangerous weapon – his shot – but now says accuracy has returned.
"I feel good, I guess I've had some trouble today, and I'm just starting to make contact, go around corners, do things and run guys off," Matthews said. .
"For me, everything felt good. But the real test is a game, but when it comes to contacts, last week everything is going well. I think the goal is not to be stuck like I did when the injury happened, to see things happen. "
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